From Vic G - A bit of
history -
First off, many thanks to Dino for
forwarding this article to me. Before you read the account
below, just a brief introduction from me: We've all seen the
graphic depictions on TV of all the aircraft that fly around the U.S.,
under FAA control, at any one time. Literally thousands of
aircraft criss-crossing the U.S., usually without running into one
another. Now imagine, if you will (as Rod Serling used to
say), that approximate number of aircraft taking off almost
simultaneously from an area the size of Delaware and all converging on
their targets, under radio silence, without ground control radar to
keep them apart, without running into each other.
In the worst of days during those
bombing raids over Germany, the Army Air Corps might lose 600 (yes,
600) planes and flight crews to enemy fire from the ground and from the
air. That's 600 crews (4500 crewmembers+) PER DAY!!
Back in my Navy days, I used to make light of the inordinately large
number of colonels in the modern Air Force. A lot of people
don't realize that many of those colonels got promoted during WWII when
Air Corps losses were so high that just living to the age of 25 made
one eligible for promotion to full colonel. I can only
imagine how many of the Air Force colonels we knew in the 60's and 70's
had spent 25 of their 30 years of service as colonels!
I highly recommend the article below for
your reading. Yes, it's long, but not nearly as long as one
of those bombing raids. We, the American people, owe a huge
debt of gratitude to those who served in the Army Air Corps during
WWII. I wonder how many of our younger generations know about
these raids... Or care? Vic

begin article----------------------------

THE
MIGHTY EIGHTH; Leslie A. Lennox.....Lt./Col. USAF(ret)

Of all the stories that have been written, and movies that have been
shown, about the 8th Air Force, very little attention has been given to
what was involved in assembling 1200 B-17's and B-24's each day, to get
them in formation to carry out a strike against Germany.
Certainly showing bombers under attack by fighters, or encountering
heavy flak, was a reality, and are interesting to watch.
Also, stories about some of the rougher missions make interesting
reading. But what was going on over England, each morning,
could get just as scary to the crews as the time spent over some of the
targets. The planning, and coordination, that had to be
accomplished during the night, by the operations planners of each
Group, so that the crews could be briefed, was unbelievable.
If the planners had failed to do their jobs properly, there would have
been a free for all among Bomb Groups, in the skies over
England. The rendezvous points, altitude, and times had to be
precise, and known by all of the crews, before the Eighth Air Force
could get in formation. The success of the planners, in
accomplishing their mission, enabled the Eighth Air Force to become the
most powerful air armada ever assembled. In my view, how this
was accomplished is one of the major untold stories of the war.

I was a pilot in the 95th Bomb Group, in late 1944 and early 1945, and
what follows is a typical mission, as I remember it, from a crew
member's perspective.

Early in the evening, our Squadron Operations would post the names of
the crews that were scheduled to fly the following day. There
were two ways we could be notified if the Group had been alerted to
fly. One was by means of lights on the front of the orderly
room, and the other with raising of colored flags. If a green
light was on, the Group was alerted, if a red light was on we would
fly, and if a white light was on, the Group would stand down.
The light was monitored frequently throughout the evening to learn our
status and, normally, we would know before going to bed if we would be
flying the next day.

On the morning of a mission, the CQ (charge of quarters) would awaken
the crews about four or five o'clock, depending on takeoff
time. The questions we always asked were, "What is the fuel
load?" and, "What is the bomb load?" If his answer
was, "full Tokyo tanks," we knew we would be going deep into
Germany. Shortly after being awakened, "6-by" trucks would
start shuttling us to the mess hall. We always had all the
fresh eggs we could eat, when flying a mission. After
breakfast, the trucks carried us to the briefing room. All of
the crew members attended the main briefing, and then the Navigators,
Bombardiers and Radio operators went to a specialized
briefing. At the main briefing, in addition to the target
information--anti-aircraft guns, fighter escort and route in--we
received a sheet showing our location in the formation, the call signs
for the day and all the information we would need to assemble our Group
and get into the bomber stream.

After briefing, we got into our flight gear, drew our parachutes and
loaded onto the trucks for a ride to our plane. We were now
guided by the time on our daily briefing sheet. We started
engines at a given time and watched for the airplane we would be flying
in formation with to taxi past, and then we would taxi behind
him. We were following strict radio silence.

We were now parked, nose to tail around the perimeter, on both sides of
the active runway, and extremely vulnerable to a fighter strafing
attack. At the designated takeoff time, a green flare would
be fired and takeoff would begin. Every thirty seconds an
airplane started takeoff roll. We were lined up on the
perimeter so that the 12 airplanes of the high squadron would take off
first, followed by the lead and then the low squadron.

Each Group had a pattern for the airplanes to fly during climb to
assembly altitude. Some would fly a triangle, some a
rectangle and our Group flew a circle, using a "Buncher" (a low
frequency radio station) which was located on our station.
The patterns for each Group fit together like a jig saw
puzzle. Unfortunately, strong winds aloft would destroy the
integrity of the patterns, and there would be considerable over running
of each other's patterns.

Many of our takeoffs were made before daylight, during the winter of
'44 and '45, when I was there, so it was not
uncommon to climb through several thousand feet of cloud
overcast. Also it was not uncommon to experience one or two
near misses while climbing through the clouds, although you would never
see the other airplane. You knew you had just had a near
miss, when suddenly the airplane would shake violently as it hit the
prop wash of another plane. It was a wonderful feeling to
break out on top, so you could watch for other planes, to keep from
running into each other. To add to the congestion we were
creating, the Royal Air Force Lancaster's, Halifax's, and Wimpy would
be returning from their night missions, and flying through our
formations. Needless to say, pilots had to keep their heads
on a swivel and their eyes out of the cockpit.

After take off, the squadron lead would fire a flare every 30 seconds,
so that we could keep him located and enable us to get into formation
quicker. The color of our Group flare was
red-green. The first thing you would see, when breaking out
of the clouds, was a sky filled with pyrotechnics, so you had to search
the sky for the Group flare, which would identify the lead airplane of
your squadron. Once you had it located, you could adjust your
pattern to climb more quickly into formation with him. As
each airplane pulled into formation, they would also fire a flare, with
the lead plane, making it much easier for the following aircraft to
keep him in sight. I think most crew members would probably
agree that the pyrotechnic show, in the skies over England, in the
morning when the Eighth was assembling, was a rare sight to behold.

The order of progression for assembling the Eighth Air Force was to
first assemble the Flight elements, the Squadrons, the Groups, the
Combat wings, the Divisions and, finally, the Air Force.

As soon as the four Squadron elements were formed, the high, low and
second elements would take up their positions on the lead element, to
form a Squadron. When the three Squadrons had completed
assembly, it was necessary to get into Group formation. This
was accomplished by having the three Squadrons arrive over a
pre-selected fix at a precise time and heading. The high and
low Squadrons were separated from the lead Squadron by 1000 feet and,
after getting into Group formation, they would maintain their positions
by following the lead Squadron.

Then it was necessary to get into the Combat Wing formation.
We were in the 13th Combat Wing, which consisted of three Bomb Groups:
the 95th, the 100th and the 390th. Whichever Group was
leading the Wing that day, would arrive over a pre-selected point, at a
precise time and heading. Thirty seconds later, the second
Group would pass that fix, followed by the third Group, thirty seconds
later. We were then in Combat Wing formation. The
navigators in the lead airplanes had a tremendous responsibility, to
ensure that the rendezvous times were strictly adhered to.

There were three Divisions in the Eighth, the 1st, 2nd and
3rd. The 1st and 3rd Divisions consisted of B-17s only, and
the 2nd Division was B-24s. The B-24s were faster than the B-17s, but
the B-17s could fly higher, therefore, the two were not compatible in
formation. As a result the 1st and 3rd Divisions would fly
together and the 2nd Division would fly separately.

Now that the Groups were flying in Combat Wing formation, it was
necessary to assemble the Divisions. This was usually
accomplished at the "coast out"--a city on the coast, selected as the
departure point "fix." The Group leader in each Combat Wing
knew his assigned position in the Division, and the precise time that
he should arrive at the coast out departure point, to assume that
position in the Division formation. The lead Group in the
Division, which had been selected to lead the Eighth on the mission,
would be first over the departure fix. Thirty seconds after
the last Group in the first Wing passed that point, the second Wing
would fall in trail, and so on, until all Combat Wings were flying in
trail and the Division would be formed. One minute later, the
lead Group in the other Division would fly over that point, and the
Combat Wings in that Division would follow the same procedure to get
into formation. When all of its Combat Wings were in trail,
the Eighth Air Force B-17
strike force was formed and on its way to the target. At the
same time the 2nd Division B-24s were assembling in a similar manner
and also departing to their target.

Meanwhile, as the bombers were assembling for their mission, pilots
from the Fighter Groups were being briefed on their day's
mission. Normally, 600 to 800 P-38's, P-47's, and P-51's
would accompany the bombers to provide protection against enemy fighter
attacks. Fighter cover was not needed by the bombers until
they were penetrating enemy territory. Therefore to help
conserve fuel, fighter takeoffs were planned to give them enough time
to quickly assemble after takeoff, and climb on course up the bomber
stream to the groups they would be covering. The combined
strength of the fighters and bombers brought the total number of
aircraft participating in a mission to approximately two thousand.

A major problem that presented itself, on each mission, was that the
bomber stream was getting too stretched out. It was not
uncommon for the headlines in stateside newspapers--in trying to show
the strength of our Air Force--to state that the first Group of bombers
was bombing Berlin, while the last Group was still over the English
Channel. It made great headlines but was a very undesirable
situation. It meant that the Groups were out of position, and
not keeping the proper separation. Furthermore, it was almost
impossible for them to catch up and get back into the desired
formation. This made the entire bomber stream more vulnerable to
fighter attacks.

Finally, our planners figured out what we were doing wrong.
When the first Group departed the coast out fix, it started its climb
to what would be the bombing altitude. Then, as each succeeding Group
departed that fix, it, too, would start climbing. The problem with this
procedure was that, as soon as the first Group started its climb, its
true airspeed would start to
increase, and it would encounter different wind velocities.
Now it would start to pull away from the Group in back of it, and the
"stretch-out" of the bomber stream would begin. By the time
the last Group had reached the coast out, to start its climb, the first
Group would be leveled off, with a true airspeed approaching 250 miles
per hour, and the bomber stream would be really stretching out.

The solution to this problem that had been frustrating the Bomber crews
for so long was pretty simple. We would no longer start
climbing at the coast out, but instead, at a designated time, all
Groups would start climbing, irrespective of position. This
meant that we all would have similar true airspeeds and would be
influenced by the same winds aloft. That took care of the
problem. It was still possible for a Group to be out of
position, because of poor timing, but the entire bomber stream wouldn't
get all stretched out.

When you consider the way our Air Traffic Control system operates
today, and all the facilities at their disposal to guide each
individual airplane through the sky to ensure its safety, it's almost
unbelievable that we were able to do what we did. To think of
launching hundreds of airplanes, in a small airspace, many times in
total darkness, loaded with bombs, with complete radio silence, and no
control from the ground, and do it successfully day after day, with
young air crews, with minimum experience, is absolutely mind boggling.

The accomplishments of the Eighth Air Force have been and will be
reviewed by historians from World War II on. There never will
be another air armada to compare to it. I feel confident that
they will never cease to be amazed by our ability to assemble hundreds
of heavy bombers, under the conditions we were confronting, into the
devastating strike force we now fondly refer to as, "The Mighty Eighth."
----------------------------end
[nvsoar__21Jan08]

Ann Margret, USO Show, Vietnam

This is a good counter balance story to the Jane
Fonda/Vietnam/Woman
Of The Year story I have received many times in my e-mail....

Ann
Margret, Viet Nam 1966

Richard, (my husband), never
really talked a lot about his time in Viet Nam other than he had been
shot by a sniper. However, he had a rather grainy, 8 x 10
black and
white photo he had taken at a USO show of Ann Margret with Bob Hope
in the background that was one of his treasures.

A
few years
ago, Ann Margret was doing a book signing at a local
bookstore.
Richard wanted to see if he could get her to sign the treasured photo
so he arrived at the bookstore at 12 o'clock for the 7:30 signing.

When I got there after work, the line went all the way around
the bookstore, circled the parking lot and disappeared behind a
parking garage. Before her appearance, bookstore employees
announced
that she would sign only her book and no memorabilia would be
permitted.

Richard
was disappointed, but wanted to show her the photo and let her know
how much those shows meant to lonely GI's so far from home.
Ann
Margret came out looking as beautiful as ever and, as second in line,
it was soon Richard's turn.

He presented the book for her
signature and then took out the photo. When he did, there
were many
shouts from the employees that she would not sign it. Richard
said,
"I understand. I just wanted her to see it."

She
took one look at the photo, tears welled up in her eyes and she said,
"This is one of my gentlemen from Viet Nam and I most certainly
will sign his photo. I know what these men did for their
country and
I always have time for 'my gentlemen'."

With
that, she pulled Richard across the table and planted a big kiss on
him. She then made quite a to-do about the bravery of the
young men
she met over the years, how much she admired them, and how much she
appreciated them. There weren't too many dry eyes among those
close
enough to hear. She then posed for pictures and acted as if
he were
the only one there.

Later at dinner, Richard was very quiet. When I asked if he'd
like to talk about it, my big strong husband
broke down in tears. "That's the first time anyone ever
thanked
me for my time in the Army," he said.

That night was a
turning point for him. He walked a little straighter and, for
the
first time in years, was proud to have been a Vet. I'll never
forget
Ann Margret for her graciousness and how much that small act of
kindness meant to my husband.

I now make it a point to say
"Thank you" to every person I come across who served in our
Armed Forces. Freedom does not come cheap and I am grateful
for all
those who have served their country.

If you'd like to pass on
this story, feel free to do so. Perhaps it will help others
to become
aware of how important it is to acknowledge the contribution our
service people make.

This
story confirmed_see http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/margret.asp
[nvsoar__23Mar2007]

On
Freedom

Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun
almost all
of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat,
and had sunk more than four hundred British ships in their convoys
between England and America for food and war materials.
Here are the facts in historical perspective!
Bushido Japan had overrun most of Asia, beginning
in 1928,
killing millions of civilians throughout China, and impressing millions
more as slave labor.
The United States was in an isolationist and
pacifist
mood, and most Americans and Congress wanted nothing to do with the
European war, or the Asian war.
Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,
and in
outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following
day on Germany, which had not attacked us.
It was a dicey thing. We had
few allies.
France was not an ally, for the Vichy government
of France
aligned with its German occupiers. Germany was not an ally, for it was
an enemy, and Hitler intended to set up a Thousand Year Reich in
Europe. Japan was not an ally, for it was intent on owning and
controlling all of Asia. Japan and Germany had
long-term
ideas of invading Canada and Mexico, and then the United States over
the north and south borders, after they had settled control of Asia and
Europe.
America's allies then were England, Ireland,
Scotland,
Canada, Australia, and Russia, and that was about
it. There
were no other countries of any size or military significance with the
will and ability to contribute much of anything to the effort to defeat
Hitler's Germany and Japan, and prevent the global dominance of
Nazism. And we had to send millions of tons of
arms,
munitions, and war supplies to Russia, England, and the Canadians,
Aussies, Irish, and Scots, because none of them could produce all they
needed for themselves.
All of Europe, from Norway to Italy, except Russia
in the
east, was already under the Nazi heel.
America was not prepared for
war. America had
stood down most of its military after World War I and throughout the
depression. At the outbreak of World War
II there
were army soldiers training with broomsticks over their shoulders
because they didn't have guns, and using cars with ''tank'' painted on
the doors because they didn't have tanks. And a big
chunk
of our navy had just been sunk and damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by
the
donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England that
was the property of Belgium and was given by Belgium to England to
carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler.
Actually, Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was
unable
to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into
rubble the next day anyway, just to prove they could.
Britain had been holding out for two years already
in the
face of staggering shipping loses and the near-decimation of its air
force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by
Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were
a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later and turning
his attention to Russia, at a time when England was on the verge of
collapse in the late summer of 1940.
Russia saved America's rear by putting up a
desperate
fight for two years until the United States got geared up to begin
hammering away at Germany.
Russia lost something like 24 million people in
the sieges
of Stalingrad and Moscow, 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly
civilians, but also more than a million
soldiers.
More than a million!
Had Russia surrendered, then, Hitler would have
been able
to focus his entire campaign against the Brits, then America, and the
Nazis would have won that war.
Had Hitler not made that mistake and invaded
England in
1940 or 1941, instead, there would have been no England for the United
States and the Brits to use as a staging ground to prepare an assault
on Nazi Europe.
England would not have been able to run its North
African
campaign to help take a little pressure off Russia while America geared
up for battle, and today Europe would very probably be run by the
Nazis, the Third Reich, and, isolated and without any allies (not even
the Brits).
The United States would very likely have had to
cede Asia
to the Japanese, who were basically Nazis by another name then, and the
world we live in today would be very different and much worse.
I say this to illustrate that turning points in
history
are often dicey things. And we are now at another one.
There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that
either
has or wants to have, and may soon have the ability to deliver small
nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world,
unless it is prevented from doing so.
France, Germany, and Russia, have been selling
these
Islamic nations weapons technology at least as recently as 2002, as
have North Korea, Syria, and Pakistan paid for with billions of dollars
that Saddam Hussein skimmed from the "Oil For Food" program
administered by the United Nations with the complicity of Kofi Annan
and his son.
The Jihadis, or the militant Muslims, are
basically Nazis
in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically
conservative
(definitely not liberal) form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control
the Middle East first, then Europe and then the world. All who do not
bow to Allah should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated.
They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel,
and
purge the world of Jews. This is what they say.
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle
East for
the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas.
Islam is
having its Inquisition and its Reformation today, but it is not yet
known which will win the Inquisition, or the Reformation.
If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, or the
Jihadis, will control the Middle East, and the OPEC oil, and the United
States, European, and Asian economies the techno-industrial economies
will be at the mercy of OPEC.
This is not an OPEC dominated by the well educated
and
rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis.
You want gas in your car? You
want heating oil
next winter? You want jobs? You want the dollar to
be worth
anything? You better hope the Jihad, the Muslim
Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.
If the Reformation movement wins, that is the
moderate
Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions
and live in peace with the rest of the world, move out of the 10th
Century into the 21st Century. Then the troubles in the Middle East
will eventually fade away, and a moderate and prosperous Middle East
will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do
that we
have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad,
Al Qaeda, the Islamic terrorist movements.
We have to do it somewhere, we cannot do it just
anywhere
and we cannot do it everywhere at once.
**** We have created a focal point for the battle
now at
the time and place of our choosing, in IRAQ.....
Not in New
York, not in London, or Paris, or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we did and
are doing two very important things:
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein and whether Saddam
Hussein
was directly involved in 9/11 or not is not the issue. It is undisputed
that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for
decades, Saddam is a terrorist. Saddam is, or was,
a weapon
of mass destruction, who is responsible for the deaths of probably more
than a million Iraqis and two million Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash
point,
with Islamic terrorism in Iraq and we have focused the
battle. We are killing bad guys there, and the ones
we get
there we won't have to get here, or anywhere else.
We also
have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be
a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an
outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East
for as long as it is needed.
The Eurasia could have done this, but they didn't,
and
they won't. We now know that rather than opposing the rise of the
Jihad, the French, Germans, and Russians were selling them
arms. We have found more than a million tons of
weapons and
munitions in Iraq. If Iraq was not a threat to
anyone, why
did Saddam need a million tons of weapons?
Additionally, Iraq was paying for French, German,
and
Russian arms with money skimmed from the United Nations Oil for Food
Program (supervised by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his son)
that was supposed to pay for food, medicine, and education, for Iraqi
children.
World War II, the war with the German and Japanese
Nazis,
really began with a ''whimper'' in 1928.
It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with
the
Japanese invasion of China. It was at war
for
fourteen years before America joined in it. It
officially
ended in 1945 a 17 year war and was followed by another decade of
United States occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries
reconstructed and running on their own again a 27 year war.
World War II cost the United States an amount
equal to
approximately a full year's GNP adjusted for inflation, equal to about
$12 trillion dollars.
World War II cost America more than 400,000 killed
in
action, and nearly 100,000 are still missing in action.
The Iraq war has so far cost the United States
about $120
billion, which is roughly what 9/11 cost New York.
It has
also cost about 1,000 American lives, which is roughly 1/3 of the 3,000
lives that the Jihad snuffed on 9/11.
But the cost of not fighting and winning World War
II
would have been unimaginably greater, a world that would now be
dominated by German and Japanese Nazism.
Americans have a short attention span, now,
conditioned
I suppose by 30 minute television shows and 2 hour movies in
which everything comes out okay. The real world is
not like
that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody
and
ugly. It always has been, and probably always will
be.
If we do this thing in Iraq successfully, it is
probable
that the Reformation will ultimately prevail. Many
Muslims
in the Middle East hope it will. We will be there
to
support it.
It has begun in some countries, Libya, for
instance also
Dubai and Saudi Arabia. If we fail, the Inquisition will
probably
prevail, and terrorism from Islam will be with us for all the
foreseeable future, because the people of the Inquisition, or Jihad,
believe that they are called by Allah to kill all the Infidels, and
that death in Jihad is glorious.
The bottom line here is that we will have to deal
with
Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that
is. It
will not go away on its own. It will not go away if
we
ignore it.
If the United States can create a reasonably
democratic
and stable Iraq, then we have an ''England'' in the Middle East, a
platform from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the
Middle East.
The history of the world is the clash between the
forces
of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at
the gates.
The Iraq war is merely another battle in this
ancient and
never-ending war. And now, for the first time ever,
the
barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons unless we or somebody does
prevent them.
The Iraq war is expensive, and uncertain,
yes.
But the consequences of not fighting it and winning it will be
horrifically greater. We have four options:
1.We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets
nuclear
weapons.
2.We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets
nuclear
weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on
nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3.We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its
dominance
in the Middle East, now, in Europe in the next few years or decades,
and ultimately in America.
4.Or we can stand down now, and pick up the fight
later
when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the
Jihad has dominated France and Germany and maybe most of the rest of
Europe. It will be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier
then.
Yes, the Jihadis say that they look forward to an
Islamic
America. If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your
children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the
Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.
We can be defeatist, as many Democrats and
liberals, peace
activists, and anti-war types seem to be, and concede or surrender to
the Jihad or we can do whatever it takes to win this war against them.
The history of the world is the history of civil
clashes,
or cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas,
ideas about
what society and civilization should be like and the most determined
always win. Those who are willing to be the most
ruthless
always win.
The pacifists always lose, because the
anti-pacifists kill
them.
In the 20th Century it was western democracy vs.
communism, and before that western democracy vs. Nazism, and before
that Western democracy vs. German Imperialism.
Western democracy won, three times, but it wasn't cheap,
fun,
nice, easy, or quick. Indeed, the wars against
German
Imperialism (World War I), Nazi Imperialism (World War II), and
communist imperialism (the 40-year Cold War that included the Vietnam
Battle, commonly called the Vietnam War, but itself a major battle in a
larger war) covered almost the entire century.
The first major war of the 21st Century is the war
between
Western Judeo/Christian Civilization and Wahhabi Islam. It
may
last a few more years, or most of this century.
It will last until the Wahhabi branch of Islam fades away, or
gives up its ambitions for regional and global dominance and Jihad, or
until Western Civilization gives in to the Jihad.
Remember, perspective is everything, and America's
schools
teach too little history. The Cold War lasted from about 1947
to
1989 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
Forty-two
years.
Europe spent the first half of the 19th century
fighting
Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany.
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year
occupation and the United States still has troops in Germany and
Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more
than 50
million people, maybe more than 100 million people, depending on which
estimates you accept.
The United States has taken a little more than
1,000
Killed-in-Action (KIA) in Iraq. The United States
took more
than 4,000 KIA on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the
Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In World War II the United States averaged 2,000
KIA a
week for four years. Most of the individual battles
of
World War II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so
far.
But the stakes are at least as high: a
world
dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human
rights, and personal freedoms--or a world dominated by a radical
Islamic Wahhabi movement, and by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the
Sharia.
I do not understand why many Americans do not
grasp this.
Too much television I guess.
Many Americans profess to be in favor of human
rights,
civil rights, liberty, freedom, and all that. But
not for
Iraqis, I guess. In America, but nowhere else.
The 300,000 Iraqi bodies in mass graves in Iraq,
not our
problem. The United States population is about
twelve times
that of Iraq, so let's multiply 300,000 by twelve.
What
would you think if there were 3,600,000 American bodies in mass graves
in America because of our president? Would you not want
another
country to help liberate America?
''Peace Activists'' always seem to demonstrate
where it's
safe and ineffective to do so: in America. Why
don't we
see peace activists demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq,
Sudan,
North Korea; in the places in the world that really need peace activism
the most?
Are we not supposed to be in favor of human
rights, civil
rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity,
etc? Well,
if the Jihad wins and wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil
rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are
coming
down on the side of their own worst enemy. If the Jihad wins,
it
is the death of ALL OTHER "ISMS" !
Too many Americans JUST DON'T GET IT !
*********(The writer has lived and worked in the
Middle
East for years and is very involved in Arabic affairs).